29 December 2007

Jazz giant Oscar Peterson has died. He was one of the premier jazz pianists of the 20th century. His career spanned 7 decades and his contributions to the art are unfathomable.

With a style reminiscent of Art Tatum, but with a texture and touch which were far more resonant, Peterson blazed his way into international fame. He played with the greats - Getz, Ellington, Basie and Ellis.

Growing up in Canada and practicing 4 to 6 hours per day, honed his skills and made him a virtuoso by the age of 18. Here is a fitting tribute to him. You can see the master at work in this haunting piece.

28 December 2007

560 AM - WIND has been my choice for talk radio for 2 years now. My favorite shows are Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham.

Michael Savage's show is raw, brutal and enlightening. He strips away most of the political correctness that encapsulates our political dialogue and drills down to the details in the news that the MSM ignores. He's like the interesting, angry uncle that comes over for dinner once in a while.

Laura Ingraham, on the other hand, is erudite and highly informed. She is an attorney who once clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. She's genuinely funny and fills her show with funny banter, interesting guests and audio tidbits that will put a smile on your face for the short 2 hours that she's on our local affiliate.

I'm slowly pulling away from WIND since they replaced Laura's morning show with Dennis Miller. While Miller is a talented comedian, he's definitely out of his element when discussing politics. His sidekick - "Sal" - is an annoying personality who rarely has anything to add to the discussion. They take turns laughing at each other's remarks, which aren't all that funny in the first place. And when Miller makes a comment which he thinks is humorous, he chuckles at himself. He's the only one chuckling at his obscure references. As I write, Miller is interviewing Norm McDonald and allowing McDonald to do a "stand-up" routine for most of the hour. Miller must be the only person who thinks Norm McDonald is funny. Again, no one is tuning in to Dennis Miller to listen to a mediocre comic - we want to hear political discussions and interviews.

But the worst part of WIND's lineup is definitely The John and Cisco show. After one year, it is painfully obvious that they don't belong on the radio.

It's apparent that they don't prepare for the show by doing research. For example, they interview Micheal Medved every Friday for a 10 minute segment. When Ann Coulter made her famous "jews aren't perfected beings" remark, Medved spoke with her on his show. He did a good job of clearing up the controversy and determined it was blown out of all proportion by the media.

On the following Friday, a week after Coulter appeared on Medved's show, "Big John and Cisco" wanted to hear Medved's take on the Ann Coulter controversy. These two couldn't be bothered to pull 15 minutes of Medved's show to figure out that he'd already spent hours talking about it! For the listeners who already heard Medved's take on the whole thing, it was tiring to listen to the whole thing again. I was thinking, "Why couldn't these two be bothered to tune into some of Medved's show - or have Medved's engineer send them a slice of the Coulter show?"

Another annoyance about "Big John" is his thinly veiled dislike for the Police.

When Chicago police officers raided a false identity ring, run by Latin King gang-members, in the Little Village neighborhood last year, "Big John" Howell said, "Why couldn'nt the police NOT come in such large numbers and wearing their big, black riot gear - it was all intimidating."

He's made a number of ridiculous and uneducated comments on the air - enough of them that I've sent emails to Dave Santrella, WIND's General Manager, complaining about the show's bias and its lackluster content.

All they do is read newspaper items and then comment about them - it doesn't take much "talent" to do that. I'd rather see BIll Bennett brought back for the 5am to 9am slot, with Laura Ingraham returning to take the reins at 9am to noon.

So for now I've gone over to 890AM - they've got Don & Roma (pro-Police) in the morning, Rush Limbaugh at 11am and Mark Levin at night.

I've had enough of WIND's morning boredom show and their idiotic comedian commentary.

If you feel the same way as I do, you can email Dave Santrella at dave.sentrella@560wind.com

Murdered by Mumia is the new book by Maureen Faulkner - wife of slain police officer Daniel Faulkner.

As is so often the case in capital crimes, the victims get overlooked by Liberal pundits. They seem to automatically glam on to the offender's side and defend him to the end.

As Maureen Faulkner writes so eloquently, she is the one who has been sentenced to life: a life of grief, pain and loss.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

The knock. That rap on the door that is the dread of all of the spouses of people who put their lives on the line—cops, firefighters, EMTs, the military, each profession with its own protocol. I got that knock in the early morning hours of a bitter-cold Wednesday, December 9, 1981, when my fitful slumber was interrupted by the thud of destiny. That night I had trouble sleeping, so I went down and fell asleep on the couch in front of the TV. I was awakened by the sound of a rap on the door. It was a gentle tapping but it sounded like a cannon shot to me. I quickly looked at the clock and saw that it was a little after 4:00 a.m. I got up and looked through the window to where a police officer was standing on the step. With his shiny adornments glistening against the dark night, I thought maybe I was dreaming. My heart pounded furiously against my ribcage and my knees felt weak as I opened the door....

Mumia was convicted by a racially mixed jury. Mumia's brother was the person that was driving the car and he was struggling (fighting) with Faulkner when Mumia came out of the car with a pistol in his hand. Mumia was shot once by Officer Faulkner after Mumia shot Faulkner in the back. Mumia was found on-scene with the gun in his hand and screamed "I shot that motherfucker! I hope that motherfucker dies!" as they wheeled him into the hospital.

Mumia was (is) a member of the Black Panthers and has a history of anti-government, anti-police agitations.

Well, here we are, 25 years later, and instead of an execution, we have something akin to a coronation. Mr. Cook has received money for the sales of books written while in prison, and he has been allowed to write a column in which he regularly rants about 'racial injustice in America.' In addition, his fight against the death penalty, for which he has had the support of several Hollywood celebrities, has proved fruitful because, a few years ago, a judge reduced his penalty to life in prison. Now, his international fan club, which has succeeded in getting him named an honorary citizen of 25 cities around the world, including Montreal, Paris, and Palermo, and even naming a street after him in the Paris suburb of St. Denis, is trying to get him released.

In our current debased culture, men of vice are elevated and men of virtue are denigrated.

27 December 2007

Apologies for no posting since 15-Dec-07. I've been under the weather, the kids are taking turns getting sick, and with the holiday rush, I haven't had time to post anything.

From today's LATImes, California's citizens are fleeing the state in droves but overall state growth is up due to immigration.

The annual study by the Department of Finance showed that 89,000 more people fled California than moved there from somewhere else. The arrival of 200,000 immigrants caused a net surge in population growth.

What is the influx of immigrants to California doing to the crime rate? It's going up.

15 December 2007

Forty-four percent of Hispanics and 47 percent of Asians are "afraid of African-Americans because they are responsible for most of the crime," the survey of 1,105 adults drawn from the three ethnic groups showed.

More than half of black Americans polled and 46 percent of Hispanics said Asian business owners do not treat them with respect.

And half of African-Americans said Latin American immigrants "are taking jobs, housing and political power away from the black community."

Hispanics and Asians, whose populations are made up mainly of immigrants, were positive about the American dream, saying that those who work hard in the United States reap the rewards of their toil.

In contrast, more than 60 percent of African-Americans dismissed the American dream as not working for them.

The most illuminating portion of the poll was the minority views of whites. The 3 groups viewed white Americans in a more favorable light than they did members of the other minority communities. Sixty-one percent of Hispanics, 54 percent of Asians and 47 percent of African-Americans said they would rather do business with whites than members of the other two groups.

And while we're on the topic of race - Oprah is catching heat from her own fans for her support of Barack Obama. Oprah is throwing her substantial body mass index behind BO and many see it as pandering to "one of her own." Her fans are disappointed in her on two fronts: 1. that she is finally coming out and becoming "political" and 2. that she is backing a black candidate because, and only because, she is black. Many people like to think of Oprah as racially neutral. Publicly she tries to be but privately I'm sure she's "all about the struggles, girlfriend!"

I haven't seen her construct a domestic violence shelter for women in Las Moches, Mexico. Even though 80% of women who are murdered in Mexico are killed by their hubbies. Why did she build that compound in Africa? Because she thinks of herself of African, duh!?!

It'd be nice to have a black person in a leadership position who's default position on everything was NOT their racial identity.

About the only black people like that are Dr. Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele and LaShawn Barber. If any of these 3 would run for office, they'd certainly get my vote.

12 December 2007

UPDATE: Drew's website is offline, no doubt because he was just caught trying to hide $250,000 by "donating" it to his son in order to keep it off the books and away from civil suits. I posted the following kind of "tongue-in-cheek" - he probably is guilty of all this but, I just thought it'd be refreshing to entertain the presumption of innocence. Like SCC I'm sick and tired of all the Police Bashing that's going on in our beloved City. And this was just my way of blowing off some pent up steam.

If you haven't heard of the Drew Peterson case, then you've been living in a cave for the last 6 months.

The media is portraying him as evil incarnate. He has the unfortunate luck of being three things that the media has no problem demonizing: male, white and a cop.

Any of those 3 factors is enough to get your name, face, home address and foot-size published in a local rag newspaper.

When OJ was arrested and charged, look how many people came together to support him. Many protestations in the press decried his arrest as racial bias and injustice. The evidence, though mostly circumstantial, weighed heavily against him. Still, there was somewhat of a thread flowing through the media that OJ was "innocent until proven guilty."

There is no such presumption in Peterson's case. He has already been tried and executed.

Drew needs your help. Until a benefit can be put together, he's put together a website where you can make a donation to his defense fund.

God bless all the former SOS officers - especially Lt. JB. Let's bring back the presumption of innocence with police officers. It's the least we can do.

10 December 2007

Rawa Family...On July 13, 2007, Chicago police officer and parishioner Bob Rawa, was on his way home from work when he passed away suddenly from a brain aneurism. Bob, left behind his wife Linda (Hayes) a St Juliana alum - class of ‘79 and 2 young children, Robert 4 years old and Holly, 1 year old. Linda was pregnant at the time. Due to complications Carly was born premature and returned home to God. Please use the form below when shopping at Jewel on the designated dates.

You can go to the website here. This information is located on page 6 - just print it, fill it out and take it to any Jewel Food stores. They'll take care of the rest.

Please do what you can to support the Rawa family - they sincerely need it.

Romina Deeken, interviewed for the story, travels from Germany to visit her 'inmate' .... here's her photo from her company's webite:

Here's a picture of her from the Dallas News story, complete with a visage saddened with hurt and a tear running down her cheek.

"Ms. Deeken, who works for a media company in Germany, says she knows the deal – some death row inmates manipulate European women for sport, sexual stimulation and money – just like men on the outside.

The death penalty, Ms. Deeken said, is a barbaric punishment in a flawed U.S. justice system.

"Everybody has a right to fair trial, but he never had that," she said, referring to her pen pal. "The fact that he is black – well, there is a lot of discrimination. I know blacks are treated unfairly."

LIke the majority of her European compatriots, they buy the lie that our major media outlets sell: Black are oppressed by a system of racial discrimination that is intent on one thing - to keep blacks in their place and denies them "justice."

I've spent time in Europe, and over a few glasses of Cabernet Sauvignon with a Parisienne, it was like the guy had memorized the NYTimes. He just kept spewing the crap that he'd read in our newspapers: America is an inherently racist country, full of gun-toting cowboys, that is run by an elite group of Republican business-men.

Of course, I corrected his deeply misguided ideas.

I know many famous death row prisoners have had women flocking to them like bees in a field of chrysanthemums. Even Ted Bundy had conjugal visits, and even married a woman while in prison. Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, received 100 letters per week and got married while on death row. The article goes on to highlight that a woman is working on a book that will attempt to explain the mechanism behind these poor souls who reach out to the worst people in our society - and fall in love with them.

Clearly these women have deep emotional problems, and the good doctor says that it can all be tied back to a history of physical and sexual abuse in their families of origins.

As PT Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute. These amateurs are being played by some true professionals.

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IN THEIR OWN WORDS

“And then finally I want to say that we need one idea, and we’re not thinking about a solution to the problem … And the one idea is, how we are going to exterminate White people because that in my estimation is the only conclusion I have come to. We have to exterminate white people off the face of the planet.“